The Conspiracy of Us

Avery West's newfound family can shut down Prada when they want to shop in peace, and can just as easily order a bombing when they want to start a war. Part of a powerful and dangerous secret society called the Circle, they believe Avery is the key to an ancient prophecy. Some want to use her as a pawn. Some want her dead. To unravel the mystery putting her life in danger, Avery must follow a trail of clues from the monuments of Paris to the back alleys of Istanbul with two boys who work for the Circle.

Eleanor & Park

Set over the course of one school year, in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits - smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love - and just how hard it pulled you under.

Anna and the Swallow Man

Kraków, 1939. A million marching soldiers and a thousand barking dogs. This is no place to grow up. Anna Łania is just seven years old when the Germans take her father, a linguistics professor, during their purge of intellectuals in Poland. She's alone. And then Anna meets the Swallow Man. He is a mystery, strange and tall, a skilled deceiver with more than a little magic up his sleeve. And when the soldiers in the streets look at him, they see what he wants them to see.

LOVE_Reading_LOVE_Audiobooks! says:"Depressingly beautiful as WWII stories have to be"

The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4

Meet Adrian Mole, a hapless teenager providing an unabashed, pimples-and-all glimpse into adolescent life. Writing candidly about his parents' marital troubles, the dog, and his life as a tortured poet and 'misunderstood intellectual', Adrian's painfully honest diary is still hilarious and compelling reading thirty years after it first appeared.

The Burning Sky: The Elemental Trilogy, Book 1

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation - or so she's been told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of the Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the most powerful tyrant and mage the world has ever known. This would be a suicide task for anyone, let alone a reluctant 16-year-old girl with no training.

Ubik

Glen Runciter runs a lucrative business - deploying his teams of anti-psychics to corporate clients who want privacy and security from psychic spies. But when he and his top team are ambushed by a rival, he is gravely injured and placed in "half-life," a dreamlike state of suspended animation. Soon, though, the surviving members of the team begin experiencing some strange phenomena, such as Runciter's face appearing on coins and the world seeming to move backward in time.

The Magicians: A Novel

Quentin Coldwater is brilliant but miserable. A senior in high school, he's still secretly preoccupied with a series of fantasy novels he read as a child, set in a magical land called Fillory. Imagine his surprise when he finds himself unexpectedly admitted to a very secret, very exclusive college of magic in upstate New York, where he receives a thorough and rigorous education in the craft of modern sorcery.

The Firebird

Nicola Marter was born with a gift. When she touches an object, she sometimes glimpses those who have owned it before. When a woman arrives with a small wooden carving at the gallery Nicola works at, she can see the object’s history and knows that it was named after the Firebird - the mythical creature from an old Russian fable. Compelled to know more, Nicola follows a young girl named Anna who leads her into the past on a quest through the glittering backdrops of the Jacobites and Russian courts, unearthing a tale of love, courage, and redemption.

Bruiser

Tennyson: Don’t get me started on the Bruiser. He was voted “Most Likely to Get the Death Penalty” by the entire school. He’s the kid no one knows, no one talks to, and everyone hears disturbing rumors about. So why is my sister, Brontë, dating him? One of these days she’s going to take in the wrong stray dog, and it’s not going to end well.BronteMy brother has no right to talk about Brewster that way — no right to threaten him. There’s a reason why Brewster can’t have friends — why he can’t care about too many people.

The Sparrow

Emilio Sandoz is a remarkable man, a living saint and Jesuit priest who undergoes an experience so harrowing and profound that it makes him question the existence of God. This experience - the first contact between human beings and intelligent extraterrestrial life - begins with a small mistake and ends in a horrible catastrophe.

Suddenly One Summer

Divorce lawyer Victoria Slade has seen enough unhappy endings to swear off marriage forever. That doesn't mean she's opposed to casual dating - just not with her cocky new neighbor, who is as gorgeous and tempting as he is off-limits. But once she agrees to take on his sister's case, she's as determined to win as ever - even if that means teaming up with Ford....

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Fifteen-year-old Christopher Boone has Asperger's Syndrome, a condition similar to autism. He doesn't like to be touched or meet new people, he cannot make small talk, and he hates the colors brown and yellow. He is a math whiz with a very logical brain who loves solving puzzles that have definite answers.

Midsummer Moon

When a powerful, decisive aristocrat undertakes to protect an absent-minded young inventress from England's enemies, he finds his orderly world turned into chaos. Merlin Lambourne's stubborn dream of flight puts her at risk, not to mention driving Ransom crazy. In spite of himself, he's oddly enchanted by this muddled miss and her eccentric ways... but can he overcome his own fears and realize her invention may be the answer to saving both their lives?

Shadow and Bone

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Sash & Em: A Tale of Two Bookies says:"Fans of Graceling by Kristin Cashore will LOVE it"

Bricking It

When siblings Dan and Hayley Daley inherit their late grandmother's derelict Victorian farmhouse, it seems like a dream come true. All they have to do is fix the place up and sell it for a tidy profit! Except - as anyone who has renovated an old house knows - things are never that easy. The walls are rapidly crumbling around them, the architect is a certified lunatic, the budget is spiraling...and then there's the disturbingly intelligent cow to worry about.

Kindred

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes she's been given a challenge.

First Grave on the Right: Charley Davidson, Book 1

A smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper. Charley sees dead people. That’s right, she sees dead people. And it’s her job to convince them to “go into the light”. But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e. murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she’s been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all.

This Boy's Life

This book essentially launched the memoir craze that has been going strong ever since. The story is pretty grim: teen-aged Wolff moves with his divorced mother from Florida to Utah to Washington State to escape her violent boyfriend. When she remarries, Wolff finds himself in a bitter battle of wills with his abusive stepfather, a contest in which the two prove to be more evenly matched than might have been supposed.

The Corrections: A Novel

The Corrections is a grandly entertaining novel for the new century--a comic, tragic masterpiece about a family breaking down in an age of easy fixes. After almost 50 years as a wife and mother, Enid Lambert is ready to have some fun. Unfortunately, her husband, Alfred, is losing his sanity to Parkinson's disease, and their children have long since flown the family nest to the catastrophes of their own lives. Enid has set her heart on an elusive goal: bringing her family together for one last Christmas at home.

The Cuckoo's Calling

After losing his leg to a land mine in Afghanistan, Cormoran Strike is barely scraping by as a private investigator. Then John Bristow walks through his door with an amazing story: his sister, the legendary supermodel Lula Landry, famously fell to her death a few months earlier. The police ruled it a suicide, but John refuses to believe that. The case plunges Strike into the world of multimillionaire beauties, rock-star boyfriends, and desperate designers, and it introduces him to every variety of pleasure, enticement, seduction, and delusion known to man.

Doomsday Book

For Oxford student Kivrin, traveling back to the 14th century is more than the culmination of her studies - it's the chance for a wonderful adventure. For Dunworthy, her mentor, it is cause for intense worry about the thousands of things that could go wrong.

The Dispossessed: A Novel

Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. He will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

A moving coming-of-age story set in the 1900s, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn follows the lives of 11-year-old Francie Nolan, her younger brother Neely, and their parents, Irish immigrants who have settled in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. Johnny Nolan is as loving and fanciful as they come, but he is also often drunk and out of work, unable to find his place in the land of opportunity.

The Faithful

FBI agent Josh Metcalf believes he has uncovered a decades-long conspiracy involving missing children. His obsession has led him to compile hundreds of cases. All involve children rumored to have psychic abilities - and all have no witnesses, no leads, and no resolution.

Patrick Mabry, Jr. says:"A Little Uneven, but pretty good for a first novel"

Publisher's Summary

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

Every morning, A wakes in a different person’s body, a different person’s life. There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere.

It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally, A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day.

With his new novel, David Levithan has pushed himself to new creative heights. He has written a captivating story that will fascinate listeners as they begin to comprehend the complexities of life and love in A’s world, as A and Rhiannon seek to discover if you can truly love someone who is destined to change every day.

It’s often hard to go from reading a book in print to listening to an audiobook. You already have a voice in your head or you have an idea of how the characters would say certain things. If the audiobook strays from that too much, the audiobook isn’t enjoyable. I’m happy to report that this was a seamless transition. I suppose the months between my first reading and this listen had a little bit to do with that. But Alex McKenna is pretty awesome. She has a great voice for A’s character. It’s not super girly, but it’s not exactly boyish either. It’s a bit husky for a female and it really works for A. There’s a good distinction between A’s voice and Rhiannon’s voice, so that’s good. A’s voice stays the same throughout the book. I always thought it would have been cool if they hired different people for every day, but I think this works better. The story is told in first person so it makes sense that A’s voice is consistently the one he hears in his head. McKenna demonstrated emotion, took cues from the text, and delivered the lines smoothly. It was a great audio experience. I recommend giving it a listen.

Although it's been a long time since I have been 16, I found the various bodies/characters and their circumstances to be very open (from the inside), vulnerable, and I connected with all of them.

The family dynamics and relationships are all messy, and even the gay relationship is not without glitches and hiccups, but so what? I don't read in order to discover ideal situations and perfect worlds. I can learn about all that from the surface "everything's OK" perspective of the real characters surrounding me, and from my own need to apply a positive spin to everything and everyone I encounter. Instead, I read, at least in part, to learn about how we deal with the imperfections and challenges that we're given as a condition for occupying the planet..

This very flexible protagonist seems to have adapted quite well and is open to dealing with new circumstances every day - most of us find that just one set of life situations is more than enough. Indeed, this character's daily shape-shifting becomes somewhat liberating on many levels.

The narrator's voice, though sounding slightly hoarse, did not interfere with my enjoyment of this story, which is the second I've read where reality's boundaries are explored and crossed. Suspending disbelief is the first requirement of the reader, and then one sees how it can all actually make sense. At times I did find myself comparing this novel to "Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend", another inventive plot premise, though in my opinion not as successfully executed.

There is no "original" body owned and occupied by the main character. He/she has been in this constantly morphing state throughout all his/her life.

David Levithan is becoming one of those authors I can count on to write something I'll like. The kind where you can just hear that a new book is coming out by him, and pre-order it without needing any additional information. Every Day has a unique premise, and I was quickly absorbed into the characters and story. Levithan does a great job of succinctly explaining A's life in a way that feels completely plausible and allows the reader to just get into the story without needing all the specifics about the whys and hows. Things just are the way they are.

I absolutely loved the way that this book immerses the reader in humanity in a way that transcends gender, or sexual preference because that is the character A. We are experiencing life as A, who is experiencing life as anyone and everyone. Since it isn't possible for each of us to truly experience life outside of the body and self we are born with, this book gives us the next best thing. It really caused me to think about all the things that make humans the same and individuals different. I am truly going to miss these characters, and even though I would have loved to spend a lot more time in this story the way it ended provided enough information that I can imagine things turning out in a way that feels good. However, should a sequel be written I wouldn't hesitate for even a second to get it!

The narration was pretty perfect. The narrator had a voice that was fairly gender neutral, so imagining the characters anywhere along the gender spectrum was effortless. I highly recommend this book!

The audio itself is enjoyable and easy to listen to. Alex McKenna’s voice works as the narrator because her voice can sound both male and female which suits A’s character. There were times when she had to use a female voice to portray a character other than Rhiannon, but it still sounded like Rhiannon’s voice. Overall, however, her voices for A and Rhiannon worked well for the story; every time I heard Rhiannon or A’s voice I could picture them and their interactions very well.

Book Review:

I’m really not sure how I feel about Every Day. I’m a big David Levithan fan, so I was really excited to read this, but I have a few big issues with it.

**The insta-love. A starts off the book in Justin’s body who happens to be dating Rhiannon. A has never met Rhiannon before being in Justin’s body, but he (is it okay to refer to A as a male?) is instantly attracted to Rhiannon. He notices things about Rhiannon that Justin apparently never notices or cares about. From this day forward he’s head-over-heels in love with her. Sometimes I’m okay with insta-love, but most times I’m not, and this is another example of when it didn’t work for me. I understand crushes and lust, but his obsession with her bothered me. **Where did A come from? He talks about being this way forever, but at one point in the novel he worries about someone finding out about him. Why? Does it really matter? What will possibly happen to him? How will someone know where to find him? This whole sub-plot of the story, which includes another character who adds more conflict, really threw off the story. It felt like adding conflict for the sake of adding conflict. But maybe the story needed more conflict since the main conflict with Rhiannon is introduced at the very beginning of the book. It simply didn’t make sense. **Why the twist at the end? I’m not going to ruin the ending for anyone, but the twist at the end made me angry. Really, it ruined the book for me. I have a feeling that David Levithan is planning a sequel which would be good for the story, but upsets me at the same time. The ending feels like a cheap way get me to read another book. If there’s going to be a sequel then all of Every Day is like a prologue. I was almost able to suspend my disbelief and ignore some of the points that bothered me until that ending. **I feel like the only person who doesn’t LOVE Every Day. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m the only person who doesn’t “get” the story or appreciate it, or if maybe some readers love this book mostly because it’s written by David Levithan. Sometimes I think the author’s name on the book impacts what people think of the book. Or maybe I’m just not being fair right now. **I do like the focus on person over gender and appearance. It adds a unique way of thinking about why we like/dislike people and how attraction plays a role in relationships. I wasn’t thrilled with some of the stereotypes Levithan wrote for A to take over (a drug addict, an obese guy, a “mean girl,” and so on). These scenes often felt preachy.

Like I said, I’m having a hard time deciding how I feel about Every Day. I’ve listed more negatives than positives, but I still enjoyed listening to the book and wanted to finish it. I was holding out hope that some big revelation was going to take place and when I realized I had only 20 minutes left of the audio I started to get mad. I felt let down and sort of cheated.

The concept of this story is interesting, unusual, and very well-played out by author David Levithan. Not just anyone could write such a compelling story where we are able to connect with the main character even though he /she? is a person who doesn't even have their own body and own life. Perhaps that was part of the author's purpose. Without any of the external trappings, the merit of the protagonist rested solely on "her" spirit and personality/character. I found the main character endearing and likeable, and the world of this story was one I was glad to spend my time in. All the supporting characters were interesting to meet. The story builds up to an impressive gesture of generosity and self-sacrifice by the main character...this was a development and twist that I definitely hadn't expected. Though I was conflicted about this ending...only because it left some things undone and in limbo..with so much more that could be told. That's not to say that it wasn't very-well played out (and well-written throughout)...it just seemed to leave some things unresolved. People may want to know that this story is largely built on stream-of-conciousness and internal dialogue with our main character, interspersed with actual external events, dialogue, and the supporting characters. So, if you are more the "action" type, definitely sample this and try an excerpt to see if it's for you. Though I highly recommend it just the same! I found the narration did very much fit the story, and seemed right-on for the age and the main character.

I am not an avid YA reader and was not aware this was one. When I first herard the main character was 16, I almost made the mistake of turning it off. Thank goodness I didn't! David Levithan has the wonderful ability to keep the story flowing so it was no surprise that I had to listen to it in one sitting. Alex Mckenna did a wonderful job in bringing the characters to life.